Courts and Crime

A 20-year-old Lynchburg man entered no contest pleas for two felonies and a misdemeanor, including involuntary manslaughter, for an accident last October that led to the death of a passenger in the car he was driving.
Christian Luke Riddle entered his pleas Tuesday in Bedford County Circuit Court for misdemeanor driving under the influence, felony DUI maiming and felony involuntary manslaughter.

Last Monday, June 6, Angelo Paderes, 26, was arrested in Georgia, on charges related to an investigation in Bedford County by the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The investigation includes the man attempting to visit with a 14-year-old girl here in Bedford County as well as abducting a 2-year-old child en route here.

A 29-year-old Bedford man has been charged with malicious wounding following a stabbing early Tuesday morning.
Bedford Police responded to a call at about 5 a.m., after learning from Bedford Memorial Hospital personnel that there was a man there with multiple stab wounds. The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of Christopher William Lantrip.

A Hardy man is facing an attempted second degree murder charge following an incident early Friday morning, May 27.
Christopher W. Petersen, 29, has been charged with attempted second degree murder; discharging a firearm in an occupied dwelling and assault and battery.
Just after midnight on May 27 Bedford County 911 dispatchers received a call to the 1100 block of Oyler Road in Hardy.

A Lynchburg man, working at Bedford Middle School as a day treatment counselor, has pleaded guilty to three charges of computer solicitation of a minor under the age of 15.
On Tuesday, Cleveland Leroy Coaxum Jr., 27, of Lynchburg, entered the pleas in Bedford Circuit Court.
He had been charged last summer with the three felonies involving the use of communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children.

Two Bedford residents were sentenced to prison Tuesday for criminal offenses arising out of a four-year scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo and U.S. Attorney John P. Fishwick Jr. of the Western District of Virginia.

On Saturday, April 30, Bedford County 911 dispatchers received a call from a homeowner on Trapper Lane, off Stewartsville Road in the Stewartsville area of the county, who reported finding a barrel at their residence containing possible human remains.
Bedford County sheriff’s deputies and investigators responded and determined the remains were human. The caller told the investigators that the barrel belonged to Robert Wozniak, according to Major Ricky Gardner of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office.

Her ex-husband, Nathan Aponte, asked the jury to show Emily Aponte mercy as it went back to the jury room to decide on a sentence, having convicted her of involuntary manslaughter for causing the accident that took the life of their 6-year-old son, Ethan.

A Bedford County grand jury has indicted a county woman for second degree murder in connection with the Oct. 1, 2015, shooting of her brother.
Last Friday, the grand jury returned indictments against Vicky Thomas Clark, 54, for second degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. An August 2 trial date has been set.